Buckeyes Outdoors and Indoors for No. 9

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Practice No. 9 this spring for the Ohio State Buckeyes on Tuesday included stretching and eight periods outdoors under bright sunny skies, 76-degree temps and extreme winds, and another 11 periods on the indoor field of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

Coach Urban Meyer met with some assembled media members in the team room after practice and discussed a number of topics. Included was the announcement that senior tight end Jeff Heuerman would miss the remainder of spring after injuring his foot last Thursday in practice and undergoing surgery on Monday in Cleveland.

"He'll be probably six weeks in a cast and [then] boot," Meyer said. "We should have him ready to go full speed by June."

It's the second injury of the spring for Heuerman, a 22-game starter. He missed the first two practices prior to spring break after breaking his nose in a conditioning drill. Last Thursday a teammate stepped on his foot and caused a sprain of the mid-foot area of his left foot, prompting the surgery Monday.

Heuerman has 35 career receptions for 585 yards (16.7 yards per reception) and five touchdowns. Junior Nick Vannett and red-shirt freshman Marcus Baugh are now getting the majority of the reps at tight end for position coach Tim Hinton. Senior J.T. Moore, in his second season playing tight end after playing on defense for three years, is the only other scholarship tight end.

Additional thoughts
Some additional thoughts from Meyer during his 11-minute, 13-question interview session with the media included the following:

He said Cardale Jones is a clear No. 2 quarterback for the team, although he didn't have a particularly good day at practice today.

In fact, Meyer said that it was an overall bad day for the offense during practice today. "That's how it goes in spring, at times."

Freshman H-back Curtis Samuel "had a really good day today," according to Meyer. Samuel was part of back-to-back energy plays that caused the defense to erupt and then the offense: he was completely wiped out by Steve Miller after catching a pass out of the backfield, and moments later he broke a tackle before crushing into fellow freshman Raekwon McMillan, knocking his helmet off in the process.

The defense won the first Saturday scrimmage two weeks ago. The offense won this past Saturday.

Clinic will also honor legendary Paul Brown
The 83rd annual Ohio State University football coaches clinic, scheduled for April 10-12, will serve as "A Tribute to the Great State of Ohio Football" with keynote speeches from some of the state's best, including Cincinnati Bengals' coach Marvin Lewis and new Cleveland Browns' coach Mike Pettine.

The accomplishments of legendary Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown - on the high school level in Ohio at Massillon Washington, on the collegiate level at Ohio State and in the NFL with both Cleveland and Cincinnati - will be recognized during a special presentation prior to Lewis' 8:10 p.m. speech on Thursday (April 10).

Also honored during the clinic will be the all-time winningest high school coach in state history - Bob Lutz, from Ironton High School - and the all-time winningest coach (by percentage) in college football history, Larry Kehres, who went 332-24-3 (.929) in 27 years at Division III Mt. Union and won 11 national championships.